The role of history, society and economics in food and farming:
A broader lens
खेती और खाद्य प्रणाली में इतिहास, समाज और अर्थशास्त्र की भूमिका: एक व्यापक नज़र
खेती और खाद्य प्रणाली में इतिहास, समाज और अर्थशास्त्र की भूमिका: एक व्यापक नज़र
Background
About the Workshop
Dates: 8-11th October 2026
Venue: Sangtin Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (SKMS),
Sitapur District, Uttar Pradesh.
Language: The workshop will be conducted bi-lingually (Hindi/English);
proficiency in Hindi is required of participants.
Participation fee: INR 8000
Last date for Application: 30th August 2026
Learning Outcomes
Who is the workshop for?
This workshop is for individuals interested in any and/or all of the questions and themes mentioned above. Those experimenting with alternatives in their own lives and with small communities, researchers, practitioners, activists, professionals working with community-based organisations.
About the Organisers
Agrendia Association was established in 2016 with a mission to empower individuals and collectives through research, story-telling, leadership-building, writing workshops and immersive learning. The Bihun Collective emerged as an initiative of the organisation to critically engage with and examine the contemporary food system. It has developed a multilingual digital repository to document socio-cultural and historical food realities. The initiative’s primary objective is to foster cross-regional and multilingual discourse on the food system through dialogue and written content. It has organised several workshops, discussions, and capacity-building to encourage research on critical food studies. The Journal of Contemporary Food Studies was launched in 2025 to provide a platform for voices that critically examine the contemporary food system.
Sangtin is a grassroots NGO working with 10,000+ female and male farmer-labourers and rural youth in Sitapur, Hardoi and Lakhimpur-Kheri districts of Uttar Pradesh. It supports rural communities in their quest for a life with dignity, and operates in a culture of collective learning and knowledge sharing (seekhne-sikhaane ki prakriya). Sangtin has supported thousands of farmer-labourers to successfully obtain work and wages under MGNREGA since the scheme’s inception, and to access various social security schemes and government benefits. Its millet initiative has led to hundreds of farmers adopting millet-based mixed cropping and the local processing and consumption of indigenous millets. Sangtin organises activities for rural youth and helps them improve their knowledge, skills and confidence.
Location:
Last date for Application: 30th August 2026
For more information and queries, contact (10 AM - 6 PM)
Collective awakening envisions to make a difference by imparting the art of capturing stories or lived realities of everyday people, who do exceptional – yet seemingly ordinary things for a living. This programme aims to nurture collective awareness to document people’s aspirations, transformations and challenges to drive social change in the dire issues of our times, through storytelling.
India is in many ways the most diverse part of the planet. Be it the language we speak or the food we eat, diverse arts and crafts, culture and literature. Eminent thinkers, activists, academicians and journalists are pointing out to the transformations that our countryside is undergoing, many of these features disappear leaving us poorer. There are for instance diverse styles of weaving with yarn and fibre to handcraft a range of products. Even the artistry of pottery and blacksmithing, crafting implements essential for farming to make ornate household items are integral to the daily lives of the local communities. Many of these crafts are slowly withering away with time and modernity. These communities face real collapse, which would rob the world of some of its greatest gifts. Some unique occupations — professional storytellers, epic poem singers — are also in danger of extinction.
Other professions like toddy tappers, who risk their lives to climb a palm tree, a height unimaginable, sometimes thrice in a season are rapidly losing their livelihoods.
There is surely much in rural areas that needs to change. Be it the caste or gender discriminations, untouchability, bonded labour, exploitation, oppression and regressive practices and more. P. Sainath from PARI network says, “The tragedy, though, is that the nature of the transformation underway more often tends to bolster the regressive and the barbaric, while undermining the best and the diverse”.
These diverse occupations and cultural practices make our society vibrant and are at the core of sustainability and resilience in the face of rising disasters and changing climate. The only way to protect these livelihoods is to popularize them and make them fashionable again. This is where we come in. Through this workshop we intend to introduce the learners to methods of observation, techniques of recording people’s lives – writing and skills of employing visual media.
Ideal participants are:
- Passionate about building narratives and telling stories to help spread awareness and create a meaningful impact on our society.
- Highly motivated people who are engaged in storytelling/research/journalism
- Highly motivated and possess a strong interest in the theme, but lack experience – able to contribute different perspectives
- Participate in the entire programme
- Deliver a story in text/audio/video/photo essay format in your local context with the cohort
- Participate in a follow-up reflection session to integrate learning (or provide feedback via email/survey)
- Provide input into phase two (optional)
- Pre-program orientation: 30 minutes
- During the workshop: 2 x 2-hour sessions, once a week over 4 weeks
- Additional team meetings with mentors as needed: 30 mins/week over 4 weeks: 2 hours
- Final presentation session: 2 hours
- Reflection session/ feedback and evaluation via email: 1 hour
Dates :-
One- month online programme (sessions twice in a week).
Begins at 11 a.m. on 5th of October 2024
Programme fee is Rs. 500/-
Application Process
It is a two step process:
Step 1: Filling the application form
Step 2: Confirmation on your participation and sharing the programme joining details.